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Ventures Platform goes bigger — and broader
Developing
“The conversation has moved from ‘Why Africa’ to ‘Why you and how exactly are you going to generate returns,’” he said, adding that simply being a pan-African fund is no longer a strategy. “It allowed us to demonstrate that our approach to early-stage investing in Africa could work at an institutional scale and laid the foundation for Fund II,” Aina said.
“The result is a much greater appreciation for capital efficiency, stronger fundamentals, governance, regulatory engagement, and the importance of building businesses that can survive different funding cycles,” he said. “We are particularly interested in markets where technology can expand access to essential products and services, address critical infrastructure gaps, and create entirely new categories of consumption,” Aina said.
“We’re particularly interested in where AI changes the economics of serving African markets,” he said, pointing to its potential to reduce the cost of delivering services and help overcome labor shortages. He said it’s more important than ever to understand the institutional and market realities founders face while also connecting companies to regional and global networks as they scale.
LPs want to know more about access to top talent, how funds are navigating individual markets, and “why you have the right to win,” Aina said. “LPs are asking harder questions about performance, portfolio construction, liquidity, manager discipline, and differentiation,” Aina said.
Today, LPs expect proof,” Aina said, adding that this discipline is actually healthy for the market. In fact, he said that is the biggest edge his firm offers.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- “We’re particularly interested in where AI changes the economics of serving African markets,” he said, pointing to its potential to reduce the cost of delivering services and help overcome labor shortages.
- “It allowed us to demonstrate that our approach to early-stage investing in Africa could work at an institutional scale and laid the foundation for Fund II,” Aina said.
- “We are particularly interested in markets where technology can expand access to essential products and services, address critical infrastructure gaps, and create entirely new categories of consumption,” Aina said.
- “LPs are asking harder questions about performance, portfolio construction, liquidity, manager discipline, and differentiation,” Aina said.
- “The result is a much greater appreciation for capital efficiency, stronger fundamentals, governance, regulatory engagement, and the importance of building businesses that can survive different funding cycles,” he said.
- Today, LPs expect proof,” Aina said, adding that this discipline is actually healthy for the market.
- “The conversation has moved from ‘Why Africa’ to ‘Why you and how exactly are you going to generate returns,’” he said, adding that simply being a pan-African fund is no longer a strategy.
- LPs want to know more about access to top talent, how funds are navigating individual markets, and “why you have the right to win,” Aina said.
Sources
- TechCrunch — source text fetched for this pass link